Red Shift Preview
by Artificial Lullaby
Summary: In a world where Katara was taken instead of her mother being killed, just how different are things? How different would the world be? Zutara, TophOC, OzaiUrsa


Okay. So, this is a preview of the current, epic project I'm working on, "Red Shift". It's an AU, about how different the world would be if Katara had accidentally revealed herself to be the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, not letting Kya, a non-bender, take the blame. Unable to kill her, Yon Rha instead takes her back to the Fire Nation, where she is adopted by the Royal Family as a foil to Azula's violent personality, and her view of her own people is poisoned by the Fire Nation's propaganda.

So this is eight years later, approximately half-way through my wonderful masterpiece (hah!), where the world meets Toph Bei Fong for the first time.

Katara walked between Zuko and Azula as they entered the main hall of the palace, large enough for a few hundred people to mill around and not have to touch anyone else.

It had taken the palace over a week to get just this room ready for the event, and they had been making preliminary preparations for the event for well over a month. She herself had taken her time preparing for it, her dress and accessories picked out three weeks in advance. It fell to her feet at the front and trailed behind her at the back, in the traditional Fire Nation colours of red and gold. A broad belt pulled her in from just below her breasts to the tops of her hips, embroidered with a few fire lilies. She wore her hair up, wrapped around an ornamental buyao shaped like a blooming flower. Around her neck, above the high neckline of the dress she wore a thin chain of gold that looped around 4 times, each one longer than the last. The lowest brushed the tops of her fingers as she clasped her hands over her waist.

She looked to Azula, who wore far more traditional clothing than she did. Her hair was up in it's usual bun, with the hairpiece that signified her position in the royal family pinned around it. Her dress was also red and gold, but with the royal crest embossed on the fabric, and the fire nation symbol in the centre of the broad belt. Her dress appeared to be constructed of many layers, the top most a thin jacket that fell to the floor, the sleeves belling over her hands. Her dress, unlike Katara's, finished just before the tops of her shoulders, and the flawless skin of her neck glowed palely in the light. She would have looked beautiful, except for the scowl on her face.

Katara then turned to look at Zuko. He looked incredibly handsome, but he too had something of a scowl on his face. His robes (even though they bore remarkable similarity to the girls' dresses, he had insisted that they were, in fact, robes) were more crimson than red, with only a light gold stitching around the edges. His fell to just above his feet, and when he walked, Katara could see the tips of his curly toed shoes. His robe was more like his every day clothes than the girls' outfits, but he still looked stunning.

"Prince Zuko, Princess Azula, and Lady Katara."

Almost everyone in the room looked over to them as they swept into the room, moving together, Katara in between the siblings as they made their way towards the nearest cloud of nobles to the door.

"Princess, Lady Katara, you look splendid this evening," Long Feng said as he took Azula's hand in his own and kissed the top of it. Zuko gagged behind them, but Azula gave him her most winning smile.

"I trust the supervision of King Kuei is going well, Long Feng," she said, her tone icier than her smile suggested.

"Of course, my Lady," he said smoothly. Azula snatched her hand back and moved onto the next unsuspecting noble. Katara followed diligently behind her and Zuko, making faces at the prince whenever Azula's back was turned.

"Katara," Azula said sharply. "Who is that girl over there?"

She pointed to a waif of a girl, who was taller than most of the people in the room, her Earth Kingdom hair piece adding to her height. Her dress was finely made, consisting of an outer, deep green layer, broken by the occasional pale pink flower, and an under layer of a floaty green fabric that fluttered before her when she walked, masking her feet completely. Around her waist was a thick belt similar to Katara's own, the same deep green as her dress, with a pink flower to one side. She turned, and form where she was standing, Katara could hear the gentle tinkling of the delicate piece of glass on her headpiece, and she saw the bow the belt formed at the back, and the length of the back of her dress, which fell to the floor and continued on for a foot. She also saw how painfully thin the girl was, as if the protruding collar bone visible above the top of her dress weren't enough. Her pale face was set off by her incredibly black hair and her unfocused, pale green eyes.

By her side was a woman, a commoner, who had the girl's arm linked through her own. Her head only reached the other's shoulder. She wore a simpler dress of the same deep green material that was buttoned up all the way up to her throat. Her curly brown hair was bound back with a simple green ribbon, through which was pinned a pale pink flower made of sparkling stones.

"I don't know," Katara said as Azula rolled her eyes.

"It's your job to know who these people are so as I don't have to bother," she barked, but Katara could tell she wasn't mad at her.

The tall girl raised her face ever so slightly as Azula grew closer, and the other one turned to look at the three who were approaching them, paling slightly.

"Good evening," she said hurriedly. She jolted her companion's arm, but she didn't get a response. Katara stepped forwards and smiled kindly at her.

"Good evening," Katara replied with a slight smile. "My name is Katara, Princess Azula's lady-in-waiting."

The girl nodded slowly, before she smiled ever so slightly. "My name is Jia. I'm Miss Bei Fong's personal aide."

Katara turned to Azula, who shrugged noncommittally and turned on her heel to wander away. Zuko had long since left.

"Forgive me, but I had heard that the Bei Fong's had no children."

"So did most people," the Bei Fong girl snapped, a slight scowl spreading across her pretty face. "My parents are ashamed of having a blind daughter."

"Now Toph, if they were ashamed of you, would they have sent you to represent them and your household?" Jia said, and the scowl disappeared from Toph's face.

"That doesn't suggest to me that your parents are ashamed of you," Katara said with a gentle smile. "They're looking out for your best interest, as far as I can see."

She was suddenly pinned with a surprisingly accurate stare for a blind girl. "Well then, you're blinder than I am."

Jia gasped and gave a short bow to Katara. "I apologise for my Mistress's behaviour. She forgets her place sometimes."

"No need to apologise, just as long as she doesn't speak out against Azula," Katara whispered. Jia giggled.

Katara bowed and moved away to talk to some of the other guests.

"She's a waterbender," Toph said under her breath to Jia. The shorter girl gasped, but carried on looking forwards, leading her mistress over to the governor of New Ursa so as she could introduce her.

They had all taken their seats around the main table down the middle of the room less than an hour later. At the head of the wide table, Ozai sat next to his wife Ursa, and to Ursa's left sat Zuko, and to Ozai's right were Azula and Katara. Down the table were an array of the most influential people in the world, including the governors and lords of Fire Nation controlled cities and some of the richest families of the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. There was also a representative from the Northern Water Tribe in attendance, which was rare for a Fire Nation function. Chief Arnook and his wife were sitting at the far end of the table from the royal family.

At the top end of the table, Katara kept her eyes on the strange, thin girl from the Bei Fong family, who had sworn their allegiance to the Fire Nation near to the beginning of the war, and they were left out of all of the political discontent in the Earth Kingdom. She watched as the girl's minder kept up the pretence and warned her when her food was too hot, and kept looking up and down the table.

Katara eventually realised that this meal was dull, and with Azula constantly stabbing her in the leg with one of the knives from the table she knew that the princess was as well.

"Do something," she hissed, pointing at one of the attendants who was walking into the room, laden down with a huge platter of fruit. She sighed, and beneath the table, she twisted her hands around, pulling at the water in the poor boy's feet. One of his feet twisted beneath the other, and he plummeted towards the ground. Azula gasped in anticipation, a smile spreading across her pale face, but instead, her face twisted into a scowl as the platter came to rest suddenly, safely, atop a pillar of earth, the only sound in the room, a tinkle of bells and glass.

Almost all of the people at the table turned to look at the blind girl as her chair scraped back, and she assumed an earth bending stance, her hands turned up at the end of her straight arms, and the platter halted, the fruit safely atop it.

Some of the nobles gave her some scattered applause, and Jia sprang to her feet, helping the servant to his feet and aiding him with the platter, and Toph lowered the pillar of stone back into the ground, rearranging the tiles on the floor.

"Thank you," the attendant said as Jia helped him lift it onto the table, and she smiled gently at him. "I have no idea what happened. I guess I just tripped over my feet."

Up at the head of the table, Ursa grabbed the top of Azula's arm. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Azula feigned innocence, and looked up at her mother beseechingly. "Why of course not. Why on earth would you think such a thing?"

Ursa let go of her arm, and Azula turned to Katara, a devilish smile spread across her face. Katara, however, wasn't paying any attention to the Princess, but instead was watching the earthbender who was still standing, her aide beside her, her blind eyes turned to the floor.

"Do you think she's really blind?" Katara whispered to Azula.

She scoffed. "Do you think I care?"

Katara brushed her comment off, and turned back to the blind girl, who had reassumed her place at the table, her aide reaching up to her ornate headdress to fix a small jewel that had become entangled in her hair. She twitched her head to the side ever so slightly, and the whole of her headdress tinkled gently.

The rest of the dinner passed without event.

Zuko felt the skin of his scar tighten against the cold air as the doors opened, but he brushed it off, a scowl crawling across his face that he was sure was mirrored on his sister's face. Between the two siblings stood Katara, and she smiled softly at him.

"Your scar acting up?" she asked him softly, her head barely turned towards him. He nodded, and she smiled sympathetically.

"Mine too," she said, rubbing her neck gently. He could just see the top of her expansive scar, which spread from just below her left ear down her back to the bottom of her shoulder blade, just above the top of her dress. When it was cold, she could barely turn her head or nod. Zuko was sometimes a bit glad that his scar wasn't as bad, because Katara was crippled by the fear of showing her scar to anyone and she barely went outside without a high-necked dress on or a heavy shawl. His hampered his vision, but only on one side.

"Don't worry. If we get a moment to ourselves I'll warm it up for you."

She smiled at him, and took his hand as they led the party outside, into the candle lit gardens where the band was warming up. Barely a moment later they picked up a lively waltz, and Ozai had swept Ursa onto the cleared pavilion floor, and they were followed closely by many other couples who split off of their main groups.

Azula had commandeered an innocent bystander and was forcing him to dance with her. Zuko stood by the side of the dance floor, watching all of the couples float past. He watched as the blind earthbender from earlier floated past, her aide held gently in her arms as she led her about the circuit, weaving easily between the other couples.

He felt a finger tap on his shoulder, and he turned to see Katara offering him her hand. He smiled and took her hand gently in his, sweeping her onto the dancefloor, all of those dance lessons kicking in as he followed the flow of the other couples around the floor. He had on hand in Katara's, leading her gently, and the other resting against where he knew her scar to be, his hand a lot warmer than her freezing skin. She smiled at him as the taut skin of her scar loosened, and she placed her hand up on his shoulder as he dropped his to her shoulder blade, letting her settle her arm on top of his.

Ursa narrowed her eyes as she and her husband waltzed past their daughter, who had a strangely tight grip on the shoulder of the man she was dancing with, her claw-like nails digging into the fabric of his robes.

"We need to sort that girl out," she hissed at her husband, before plastering a smile on her face as the governor of New Ursa and his wife fluttered past them. "She needs a proper bout of discipline."

Ozai let a bit of a smile cross his face. "My dear, Azula is just a normal teenager. She just seems a bit out of control next to Katara, because she's so restricted, and Zuko's also a bit of a wimp compared to her."

Ursa scowled at him. "Don't think because you named a city after me I'll let you talk bad about my son."

Ozai shrugged, and carried on whisking his wife about the dancefloor, stopping the conversation between them.

The party had wound down, and in the earl hours of the morning, only the most energetic of couples were still swaying softly, wrapped around one another as the band played a slower, more sedate piece than they had all evening. Katara was entirely content to lean her head against the shoulder of the prince of the Fire Nation, let him guide her minimal movements as they moved gently in unison.

On the other side of the floor, Jia had her head nestled contentedly beneath Toph's chin, her arms wrapped around her mistress' back. Toph's arms were draped loosely over Jia's shoulders, her blank eyes almost shut as she almost stood still, content in having her arms around her first friend. Her best friend.

Azula had spirited away the young man she had been dancing with, and was currently 'entertaining' him in her private chambers. Ozai had been seen drawing Ursa up into his arms and carrying her upstairs as she laughed, slightly intoxicated, all the way up to their magnificent chambers, where he laid claim to her, for many hours from what the maids said.

So...what do you think? If you liked it, and think it's worth me posting the rest of the story once it's finished, please review. Review if you think it's an abomination and the rest should never be unleashed on the world. Thanks.

xx


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